By: Vasundhara sharma
India’s Mars Orbiter Mission is the country’s first mission ever to explore the Red Planet.
Definitely, it will boost up the moral of young scientist and India as a whole nation.
India created history with the success of Mangalyaan
India now joined an elite club of nations who have successfully carried out interplanetary space missions. India became the first country in the world to make it to Mars orbit successfully with its first attempt.
One of the main objectives of the first Indian mission to Mars is to develop the technologies required for design, planning, management and operations of an interplanetary mission.
The Technological Objectives are design and realisation of a Mars orbiter with a capability to survive and perform Earth bound manoeuvres, cruise phase of 300 days, Mars orbit insertion / capture, and on-orbit phase around Mars. Deep space communication, navigation, mission planning and management. Incorporate autonomous features to handle contingency situations.
The Scientific Objectives are to exploration of Mars surface features, morphology, mineralogy and Martian atmosphere by indigenous scientific instruments.
The spacecraft configuration is a balanced mix of design from flight proven IRS/INSAT/Chandrayaan-1 bus. Modifications required for Mars mission are in the areas of Communication, Power, Propulsion systems (mainly related to Liquid Engine restart after nearly 10 months) and on-board autonomy.
Mars Orbiter Mission carries five scientific payloads to observe Martian surface, atmosphere and exosphere extending up to 80,000 km for a detailed understanding of the evolution of that planet, especially the related geologic and the possible biogenic processes on that interesting planet. These payloads consist of a camera, two spectrometers, a radiometer and a photometer. Together, they have a weight of about 15 kg.
In box:
A JOURNEY OF MARS ORBITER MISSION
- 05-11-2013 PSLV-C25, in its twenty fifth flight, successfully launches Mars Orbiter Mission Spacecraft from SDSC SHAR Sriharikota
- 07-11-2013 The first orbit raising manoeuvre of Mars Orbiter Spacecraft, starting at 01:17 hrs(IST) on Nov 07, 2013 has been successfully completed
- 08-11-2013 The second orbit raising manoeuvre of Mars Orbiter Spacecraft, starting at 02:18:51 hrs(IST) on Nov 08, 2013, with a burn time of 570.6 seconds has been successfully completed. The observed change in Apogee is from 28814 km to 40186 km.
- 09-11-2013 The third orbit raising manoeuvre of Mars Orbiter Spacecraft, starting at 02:10:43 hrs(IST) on Nov 09, 2013, with a burn time of 707 seconds has been successfully completed. The observed change in Apogee is from 40186km to 71636km.
- 11-11-2013 In the fourth orbit-raising operation conducted this morning (Nov 11, 2013), the apogee (farthest point to Earth) of Mars Orbiter Spacecraft was raised from 71,623 km to 78,276 km by imparting an incremental velocity of 35 metres/second (as against 130 metres/second .
- 16-11-2013 The fifth orbit raising manoeuvre of Mars Orbiter Spacecraft, starting at 01:27 hrs(IST) on Nov 16, 2013, with a burn Time of 243.5 seconds has been successfully completed. The observed change in Apogee is from 118642km to 192874km.
- 01-12-2013 Trans Mars Injection (TMI) operations completed successfully.
- 11-02-2014 100 Days Of Mars Orbiter Spacecraft.
- 09-04-2014 Mars Orbiter Spacecraft Crosses Half Way Mark of its Journey.
- 24-09-2014 Spacecraft Successfully enters Martian Orbit ( end box)
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said “We congratulate the Indian Space Research Organisation for its successful arrival at Mars with the Mars Orbiter Mission. It was an impressive engineering feat, and we welcome India to the family of nations studying another facet of the Red Planet. We look forward to MOM adding to the knowledge the international community is gathering with the other spacecraft at Mars. All space exploration expands the frontiers of scientific knowledge and improves life for everyone on Earth. We commend this significant milestone for India.”
Now the world is serious on the strength of Indian Space Research Mission as India has become frontrunner in Space science with becoming successful launch pad for other countries space mission also.